Page:The New International Encyclopædia 1st ed. v. 06.djvu/537

* DRINKING USAGES. 467 DRISLER. lyre. Wine and water were mixed for the whole company in a crater (bowl), from which the poitila (cups) were filled. One of the party for- mally elected to the ollice of arbiter bibcndi (mas- ter of the revels) decided the strength of the beverage, the toasts to be drunk, and other mat- ters connected with the festivities: or less for- mally eadi guest suited his taste in the mixing of the wiue and water. Frequently the number of letters in the name of the one whose health it was proposed to drink decided the cyathi (nieas- nringcups) of wine (Martial xi. 37). When a IK-rson drank wine with another he first tasted of the cup himself and then handed it to his friends, with the words. Vropino tibi (1 drink to you), or more collo(]uially lioie ros. and received his cup in return. Among the Celts and (lernians a sim- ilar custom existed, but without much ceremony. There was a coninmn )iowl of wine: the first to drink took a sip, turning to liis neighbor with an "1 drink to you," and the bowl made the rounds of the table. There was no trace of the libation to the gods which was customary among the Greeks and Komans. The Christians took up the pagan custom, and in their feasts expressed good wishes for the bodily health and future welfare of their friends. An abuse crept in which savored of idolatrv and profanation — the drinking to the dead and to the saints. This latter custom was anathematized by a council at Xantes and gradually fell out of use : but drinking to the dead is not uncommon even to-day. It has been said that the pi"actice of saying "ril pledge you" originated during the tenth century, wlien the English were fearful of the treachery of the Danes. When one of the company stood up to drink to another, the bowl raised high with both hands and his back ex- posed to a murderer's blow, his companion next iiim stood up also and raised his drawn sword to defend him while drinking; he was his pledge responsible for his protection. The icassail-bowl became the poculum earitatis of the monastery. On Xew Year's Day it was placed before the abbot, and from it the superior drank to all. and the rest in succession to each other. Hence the origin of the 'grace cup' of the universities and the 'loving cup' of the corporation feasts in Lon- don, whose formalities recall those connected with the ancient wassail-bowl. After dinner the master and wardens '"drink to their visitors in a loving cup, and bid them all heartily welcome." The cup (a silver flagon containing warm spiced wine) then circulates round the table, the person who pledges standing up while his neighbor drinks to him. Excessive gallantries accompanied the drink- ing of healths during Elizabethan times. .Just as the Roman lover wrote his mistress's name with wine on the tables, the English gallant would write it with his blood, or even stab his arm and drink to her health in his blood. Drinking healths on the knees, and often with the knees bared, was of common occurrence. And doing honor to a lady by tossing into the fire some jewel or ornament of dress, with a bidding to their companions to follow, was a ctistom among lovers even into the nineteenth century. The Puritans would have no drinking of healths; but with the restoration of Charles IT. it was again carried to great excess. See To.ST. !Many old drinking usages, still kept alive by the class that clings to old traditions, are con- nected with occasions of births, baptisms, mar- riages, and deaths. The gloomy festivity of the lykeuake, or wake, over the corpse of the de- ceased, in Scotland and Ireland, and the former drinking of the dredyy (dirge) after funeral solemnities, are relics of very ancient customs. As regards miscellaneous drinking observances at one time coiiiiiion, we can refer but to few of the more prominent. Apprentices, on l)eing intro- duced to a workshop, paid so much entry money to be spent in drink, and similar exactions were made from journeymen on entering a new em- ployment. This was called paj'ing their footing. When Benjamin Franklin, on getting employ- ment in a printing office in London, refused to comply with this niiscliievous custom, he experi- enced, as he tells us, a variety of petty annoy- ances. Among shipwrights the penalty of non- liaymcnt was Hogging with a handsaw from time to time and other nialtrojatmcnt. Happily, the abolition of these usages has kept pace with the increasing intelligence of the working classes, but even nowadays the last student entering the French atelier must treat the rest. Prisoners, on being lodged in jail — as related in the novels of Smollett and others — were obliged to jiay ffiiniish for drink to the brotherhood of which they had liecome members. The efficacy of modern prison discipline has done away with such exactions. The giving of vails (Lat. rale, farewell) to ser- vants on quitting a gentleman's house, which be- came so intolerable in the eighteenth century as at length to be given up by universal consent, meant, doubtless, a gift to be spent in drink to the health of the donor, and was analogous to the custom of giving a Trinkr/eld in Germany and a pourboire in France to servants, drivers of car- riages, and others. There were at one time nu- merous drinking usages connected with depar- tures. We need only notice the boiiailie (Ft. bon aller), or. as it is sometimes called, a foy (Ft. rote), a festive drinking at the going away of servants or of persons in a still higher degree, once common in the lowlands of Scotland : also the stirrup-cup, or, as it is called in the High- lands, deoch an dorris. or drink on getting on horseback and being ready to set off. For the decline of drinking haliits in general, see the article Temperance in this Encyclopaedia. Con- sult Dunlop, DrinKiny Vsayes of Orcnf Britain (London, 1839) ; and Jlew and Astion, The Driyiks of the World (London, 1893). DRIPSTONE. A projecting molding or tab- let placed over the head of a Gothic doorway or window, for the pur[)0se of throwing off the water, whence it is also known as a water-table or weather-molding. Though such was, no doubt, its primitive use, it latterly became a mere orna- mental :ip[)endage. which served to enrich and de- fine the outline of the arch. It docs not generally extend lower than the springing of the arch, though this rule is by no means without excep- tions. When the tracery extends to a lower level, the external dripstone usually accompanies it, and Parker nn'iilions that, at the north doorway of Otliam Church. Kent, it descends the whole length of the jamb. The dripst<me is not so con- stant a feature in Continental as in English Gothir. DRISLER, dris'ler. Henry (1818-97). An American classical scholar and educator, born (m Staten Island, N. Y. He graduated at Columbia